NEW YORK – Organizations of the Puerto Rican diaspora opposed to the austerity plans imposed by the Fiscal Control Board as a result of the Debt Adjustment Plan will protest on Wall Street this Thursday amid the celebration of the “PR Now” forum in which Officials from the Government of Puerto Rico will present to financial groups the advances in the credit restructuring process on the island.
A social media notice headed by the “Puerto Rico Not For Sale” collective called for the “rally” or demonstration for 7 am in the atrium at 60 Wall Street, in the heart of Manhattan’s financial center.
Under the emblem “Puerto Rico is not for sale, neither now nor ever”, the organizers propose that the officials who will attend the event, which include Governor Pedro Pierluisi; Manuel Cidre, secretary of the Department of Economic Development and Commerce (DDEC) and the executive director of the Fiscal Control Board (FOMB), Robert F. Mujica, among others, will be celebrating the “diabolical sale” of the archipelago.
An entry by activist David Galarza Santa in the public Facebook group “A Call to Action on Puerto Rico” describes this Thursday’s mobilization as “urgent” and “emergency.”
“Boricuas and those who love us, attending the Puerto Rican parade is good, but Mother Earth needs you now more than ever!” read part of the protest invitation. “Governor Pierluisi and all those vultures and disaster capitalists bent on creating a PUERTO RICO WITHOUT PUERTO RICANS will be on Wall Street,” the ad states.
The call also questions the presence of New York Governor Kathy Hochul; and the city’s mayor, Eric Adams, at the two-day event arguing that they are legitimizing efforts that displace poor Puerto Ricans and workers from the island, “slashing” labor unions and labor protections, and privatizing public resources such as Beaches.
In a subsequent statement sent to this newspaper, the organizers of the protest stated that the Pierluisi Administration favors the rich with its plans for the island.
“Pierluisi continues to make comments that Puerto Rico’s economy has never been better; but better for whom when thousands are forced to leave the island to make room for a Puerto Rico for the rich,” said Chris Rivera, one of the spokespersons for the campaign.
For his part, Raphael Agosto-Miranda, from New York Boricua Resistance, questioned the recent decision of the United States Supreme Court that established that the Board, which manages Puerto Rico’s finances after being created through the PROMESA law in Federal Congress, does not have to provide information about its procedures to interested parties on the island.
“The Supreme Court recently ruled that the Fiscal Control Board does not have to divulge important information to the people it intends to govern, and now these vultures are secretly planning with password-protected events how to destroy Puerto Rico. This is not democracy, it is tyranny”, considered Agosto-Miranda when analyzing the ruling against the request of the Center for Investigative Journalism (CPI).
The group maintains pressure from the diaspora mainly against the Law to Encourage the Relocation of Individual Investors to Puerto Rico, known as Law 22, which is part of the Incentives Code of the Government of Puerto Rico (Law 60).
The authorities had stopped monitoring the recipients for years, some of whom have failed to comply with the requirements of the law. Most of the cancellation of decrees responds to the failure to submit annual reports to the DDEC.
“Puerto Rico Not For Sale” maintains that under laws such as the previous one, the problem of gentrification and displacement of Puerto Ricans from their lands has worsened to make way for foreigners, mostly Americans, who do not pay taxes on passive income, which may consist of interest, dividends and capital gains after settling on the island.
A CPI report that evaluates property purchases on the island between 2012 and 2021 found that the chain of purchases, price increases, and displacements began in luxury areas in municipalities such as Dorado, Rincón, and San Juan.
The media’s investigation concluded that the exemptions contained in the law through which Puerto Rico is promoted as a tax haven added to the increase in short-term rentals, among other factors, created the “perfect storm” for the price The average number of properties for sale will increase 63% in the referred period, affecting Puerto Ricans with less purchasing power.
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